Top Inbound Marketing Strategies
Inbound marketing has become extremely popular over the past few years. This effective marketing approach uses a number of techniques designed to draw customers in and encourage them to learn more. Inbound marketing is less disruptive and far more effective than traditional types of marketing including television commercials and online banner ads.
The best inbound marketing approach includes a combination of several strategies, each designed to increase the chance of success. The strategies used will be the same, regardless of the size or scope of the business. The following are our top inbound marketing strategies.
Online Content Marketing
Online content marketing involves the creation and publication of interesting, relevant content on your website. Providing visitors with a steady stream of fresh content not only improves your search engine ranking, it also gives readers a reason to come back.
When choosing your topics, consider your intended audience and any questions they might have. These questions should be addressed throughout your content. This might not always be easy, but the benefits of this approach will be immense.
In addition to providing a reason for readers to visit your website, online content provides the fuel needed for an effective social media campaign.
Off-Site Content Marketing
Off-site content includes articles and other materials you publish outside your own website. This type of content attracts people who might not already know about your business.
Examples of off-site content include blog posts written for other websites and press releases. This content should lead back to a landing page on your website (a.k.a. backlink), which enables you to track the amount of traffic coming in. The more relevant external backlinks, the higher authority Google will assign your website. Most people forget about high-quality external backlinks. This strategy should never be pushed aside.
SEO
Search engine optimization is crucial to the success of your inbound marketing efforts. SEO helps improve your company’s ranking in the search engines, increasing the likelihood that people will find your website.
Providing well-written content on a regular basis is just one example of SEO. There are several other steps involved as well such as the website’s search visibility (Title Tags, Metas, ALT tags, Headers, Page Load Speed, etc.). If you aren’t sure where to start, we are offering a free website analysis that can help improve your search engine ranking and ensure your intended audience finds your website.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase visibility of your brand. Social media allows you to reach out to millions of potential customers and start conversations about your business. Sharing website content on social media helps improve the chance of people seeing it. The more valuable content you provide your followers, the more likely they are to recommend you to their friends and family.
Note of caution: just because you post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms doesn’t mean users will see your content. These platforms are all owned by “for profit” companies. In order to maximize visibility, we recommend spending advertising dollars to promote your content on these networks. Each platform has their own advertising targeting options. We do not recommend “boosting” posts without selecting your intended demographic.
Social media marketing can help bring more visitors to your website, and help build your brand. However, the greatest benefit of social media marketing is the positive effect it has on your other inbound marketing efforts. Social media marketing does impact organic search. Google for years has included “social signals” in its organic ranking algorithm giving you even more of a reason to promote content on social media platforms.
Email Marketing
When most people think of email marketing, they think of sending thousands of unsolicited emails (a.k.a. spamming). This is not an effective way to increase your audience. Email newsletters, on the other hand, provide relevant, interesting content that has been specifically requested by your customers.
Email newsletters are a great way to let your customers know about special offers and new products. It also provides a chance to promote your social media and blog posts. For users who are not ready to commit to buying your product or service, email newsletters are a great way to capture leads and nurture them over time so you can stay “top of mind” when they are ready to buy.
Successful Marketing Strategies
While it’s important to understand all strategies involved, you need to begin by learning about your audience and creating a plan for your marketing approach. Your customers are your company’s greatest assets. It’s crucial that you learn all you can about them. In order to create a successful marketing plan you need to know how they think, what they like, and what they want to know.
After you’ve learned about your target audience, you’ll need to determine the objectives of your marketing. Your marketing should adequately support both your business and digital marketing objectives. Clearly define your goals and track them on an ongoing basis in web analytics so you can determine which strategies are working, and more importantly, which ones are not.
Before creating content, you need to determine the message you’d like to share with your audience. You need to decide whether your blog posts will answer a question, educate, inspire, or entertain your audience. Content should be well-written and free from spelling and grammatical errors. This applies for all content on your website, social media pages, and blog.
Conversion Pipeline, a top Nashville Marketing Agency, offers marketing solutions for businesses today. Please contact us for more information about our inbound marketing options.
